Polnat03(3)

Transcripts - Polnat03(3)

2.
OUTLINE
Look at relationship between
language and nationalism:
• Language as a source of
division
• Language and politics
• Language and national
identity
POLITICS OF NATIONALISM
3. LANGUAGE AND NATIONALISM

3.
NATURE OF LANGUAGE
What is the difference between a language
and a dialect?
• the criteria are partly linguistic
(distinctiveness of grammar, vocabulary);
but also:
• social (perception by speakers)
• political (definition by state)
POLITICS OF NATIONALISM
3. LANGUAGE AND NATIONALISM

5.
NATURE OF LANGUAGE
… and is the following a language?
‘Twasn’t but a whileen ago that they come
leppin’ out o’ the wood to me, and didn’t I
think ‘twas the Divil and all his young ones,
an’ I thrun meself down in the thrinch the way
they wouldn’t see me, the Lord save us! …
They went wesht the road, your Honour, an’
they screeching always; they crossed out the
field below over-right the white pony, and
faith ye couldn’t hardly see Michael Leary for
the shweat! (Somerville and Ross)
POLITICS OF NATIONALISM
3. LANGUAGE AND NATIONALISM

6.
NATURE OF LANGUAGE
or
this?
POLITICS OF NATIONALISM
3. LANGUAGE AND NATIONALISM

11.
CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGE
“Genealogical trees” of languages may be
useful in pointing to relationships
• Some languages are almost identical twins:
– Dutch-Afrikaans
– Danish-Norwegian Bokmål (especially in the
past)
– Hindi-Urdu
– Czech-Slovak
• Others are more remote from each other:
– French-Romanian
– Irish-Welsh
POLITICS OF NATIONALISM
3. LANGUAGE AND NATIONALISM

12.
CLASSIFICATION OF LANGUAGE
But the “genealogical” approach may be
misleading
• languages are not self-contained,
autonomous, objective entities
• they vary greatly in levels of (linguistic)
development
POLITICS OF NATIONALISM
3. LANGUAGE AND NATIONALISM

20.
LANGUAGE AND SOCIETY
Huge social significance of language
• Powerful, enduring link between accent
/speech form and social background
(class, region, gender, age)
• In many societies, similar link between
language and social status
(“French in the parlour, Flemish in the
kitchen”)
• Social status of language reinforced by
political status
POLITICS OF NATIONALISM
3. LANGUAGE AND NATIONALISM

21.
LANGUAGE AND POLITICS
In multilingual societies, state must adopt
policy on language.
It may:
• promote policy of bi- or multilingualism
(unlikely; “threatens” state)
• use neutral, external language
(unlikely; imposes burden on all)
• adopt dominant language as official one
(most common approach)
POLITICS OF NATIONALISM
3. LANGUAGE AND NATIONALISM

22.
LANGUAGE AND POLITICS
FOUR TYPES OF LANGUAGE REGIME
speakers of
official
language
speakers of
unofficial
languages
type of
language
regime
none
all
few
many
2-emergent multiling.state
many
few
3-state with dominant lang
all
none
1-trad. diglossic state
4-unilingual state
POLITICS OF NATIONALISM
3. LANGUAGE AND NATIONALISM

23.
LANGUAGE AND NATIONALISM
TYPES OF RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN LANGUAGE
AND “NATION” (NOT STATE)
1. “nation” contains several language communities
2. Language community contains several “nations”
3. “nation” and language community coincide
4. “nation” is linked to ancestral language
community
POLITICS OF NATIONALISM
3. LANGUAGE AND NATIONALISM